Tim Burgess at Paper Cup Coffee, Liverpool

How the story began

When Paper Cup Coffee opened in early 2022 I really liked the look of everything they were doing and made the trip to Liverpool to see them which I wrote about here.

It was a new part of the Paper Cup Project in Liverpool. The coffee shop offered training for people who had experienced homelessness, and there was a pay it forward option where you can pay the cost of a hot drink to be redeemed by a person experiencing homelessness.

It was also just a great café serving lovely coffee and food and huge colourful pastries like this cruffin.

One day they tweeted that they were having a slow day and put the call out asking for support.

I tweeted this at Frank Cottrell-Boyce hoping he might retweet.

I didn’t expect what came next. Frank paid forward 100 coffees for customers to come in and discover Paper Cup and get a free coffee and obviously this created a great buzz.

Then later to celebrate a piece of writing he was really happy with he did it again and paid forward another batch of coffees. #FranksCoffees had truly become a thing.

Another famous supporter Paper Cup had on Twitter was Tim Burgess from the band The Charlatans.

He paid forward a batch of coffees, and then said he would come and work a shift in the cafe which I didn’t completely believe would come to pass!

Tim Burgess, barista

It was really nice to arrive and see this sign outside about Tim’s event.

Inside the cafe the Christmas tree was up and there were Christmas cards on sale from HomeLess Made created by people experiencing homelessness, and special festive pay it forward present packages such as socks or chocolate.

There was also a stack of Tim’s book The Listening Party: Volume 2 for fans to get a signed copy, with all proceeds going to Paper Cup.

#TimsTwitterListeningParty became an incredible cultural phenomenon during lockdown. He is cooler than my mind can even fathom and it is wonderful for Paper Cup to have his support.

Master barista Dan showed Tim the ropes.

Of course I got the special of the day – Tim’s Toffee Latte.

Coincidentally a customer brought in this adorable dog… named Toffee!

Frank Cottrell-Boyce popped in too and here he is talking to the founder of Paper Cup (and a total powerhouse and queen) Michelle.

Walking around Albert Dock

In the afternoon I walked round to the Royal Albert Dock and went into the Museum of Liverpool.

There are some sculptures outside and the lady in the shop explained to me they are smaller versions of the Superlambanana. This was a huge sculpture created by artist Taro Chiezo for Liverpool in 1998, a cross between a lamb and a banana, as bananas and lambs both used to be common cargo on the dock.

You can see it on the card in the bottom right here next to some other cards I loved featuring seagulls and Crosby Beach.

I bought this tote bag which has the Superlambanana on it, and this little glass heart for luck.

The last time I visited Liverpool I bought a tote bag from cool shop The Nest as you will have seen on the blog so I made sure to go and see them again.